| By
Michael Wacht
LAKELAND — The Florida Conference Disaster
Response Team is building a disaster communications network that will
provide local response teams with a reliable means of communication
and help people from around the country keep abreast of local relief
efforts.
The network is a combination of the decades old
technology of amateur radio and the Internet. It is called AMENradio,
which stands for Amateur Methodist Emergency Network Radio.
“It’s a functional tool for communication
between churches, the conference and people in the field,” said the
Rev. Tom Norton, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in St.
Petersburg. “It’s for people who want to know what’s happening,
when it’s happening.”
Bill Rhan, Florida Conference Disaster Response
coordinator, said communication networks are among the first things
lost during a disaster. Traditional and digital cellular telephone
networks are both at risk. Since most Internet communication relies on
telephone lines, e-mail can also be lost.
The hub of the new communication network is
AMENradio’s Web site at http://www.amenradio.org.
The multipurpose site provides a broad range of
information related to disasters and response efforts, including
guidelines to help people and churches prepare for disasters,
discussion forums for people interested or involved in disaster
relief, information about the Florida Conference disaster response
ministry and the conference’s response guidelines.
“Any church that’s wondering what their
responsibilities are in a disaster can pull up the disaster plan,”
Norton said.
The Web site will serve as a clearinghouse for
response information during a disaster. When a disaster occurs within
the Florida Conference, the site will contain up-to-date information
on the disaster and current relief efforts, Norton said. “We plan to
link up with the Red Cross and provide a database of people in shelter
areas for relatives in other areas. Instead of tying up the phone
lines, they can log in and pick up a list of names of people who are
in Red Cross shelters.”
The information for the Web site will be
provided by a network of amateur radio operators, also known has ham
radio operators, throughout the state. Rhan said AMENradio’s goal is
to have one operator in each community served by a United Methodist
Church, but at least two operators in each district. About a dozen
operators have agreed to be part of the network.
“Amateur radio has very proven capabilities,”
Rhan said. “It is one of the most sure communications in the world.”
The local operator in a disaster area would
travel with the response team and relay information between the team
and a base station being set up at the Florida Conference Center in
Lakeland. Information relayed out of the disaster area would then be
posted to the Web site.
A new technology, called packet radio, allows
ham radios to relay digital signals over radio the way a modem
transmits digital signals over a phone line. This will allow the
disaster response teams to send computer files.
Norton is also working with Dr. David Rankin and
a team from the University of South Florida’s school of medicine to
use computers and amateur radio to improve the availability of medical
technology in disaster areas and remote parts of the world.
The idea is called telemedicine. It is similar
to streaming, the technology that allows live and recorded sound and
video to be played over the Internet, except it uses amateur radio to
send the information, rather than phone lines.
Norton said the concept is already being used to
assist doctors in Third World countries perform surgery with which
they are not familiar. “It could also be useful throughout the state
of Florida…in disasters where emergency medicine is needed.” |
